Glen Cove History
Origin of Place Names
&
Public Parks
Compiled for the 350
th Anniversary of the Founding of
Glen Cove and the 100th
Anniversary Celebrating the
City of Glen Cove
Compiled by Dave Nieri 2017
04/18/18
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Origin of Place Names
Appleby’s
The Breakwater
Back Road Hill
Cedar Swamp
Cottage Row
Dosoris
Garvies Point
The Landing
Matinecock
Morgan Island
Musquito Cove
The Orchard
Red Spring
Weeks Point
Woolsey Avenue
Glen Cove’s Public Parks & Recreational Facilities
Big Ralph Park Danis Park
Dennis Brian Murray Park Harriet Barnes Pratt Park
Morgan Memorial Park Joe Stanco Park
John Maccarone Memorial (City) Stadium
Morgan Beach Crescent Beach
Pryibil Beach Luke Mercadante Beach
Changing Street Names (as shown on 1873 and 1906 maps)
TODAY PRIOR NAME
Butler Street Coles Street
Crescent Beach Road Fresh Pond Lane
Ellwood Street Prospect Street
Forest Avenue Lattingtown Road
Garvies Point Road Bay Street
Glen Cove Avenue South Street
Jackson Street Luysters Hill Road
Landing Road Main Street
McLoughlin Street Garvie Avenue
Mechanic Street Cocks Hill Road
School Street Glen Street (Continuation)
Shore Road Front Street
North Lane Titus Lane
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Appleby’s (see also Garvies Point) – The property now known as Garvies Point
Preserve and belonging to Nassau County, was purchased from the Appleby family, who had acquired the land from the Garvie family in the latter part of the 19th century. On a 1904 map of Glen Cove, Charles E. Appleby appears to own all of the land between Garvie Avenue on the north (present-day McLoughlin Street) and Bay Street on the south (today’s Garvies Point Road).
When this land was owned by Dr. Thomas Garvie in the early 1800s, clay deposits were discovered, and the clay was mined and shipped to New York City by boat. These deposits of clay are still visible in the sand cliffs at several locations along the shore in the Garvies Point Preserve.
Until the property was sold to Nassau County in the mid-1960s, the beach area, bluffs, and the woods behind the bluffs were known locally as both “Appleby’s” and as “Garvies Point”, reflecting the current and prior owners of the land. The area behind the bluffs where the Museum sits today, named “Appleby’s Grove”, had been used as a campground for the Boy Scouts since
1911 (a year after their founding), and two Boy Scout Camps were established there, in 1915 (“Camp Coogan”), and 1919 (“Camp Gra-Mor”) through the generosity of Mr. Appleby.
Through the 1950s and 60s, though the earlier formal camps were gone, “Appleby’s Woods” were often used by the local Boy Scout troops as a campground, and by Glen Cove kids as a vast wilderness playground. The
Garvies Point Museum and Preserve was established on this property in 1967.
Colorized postcard showing Scouts overlooking Hempstead Harbor from the bluffs at Appleby’s
Courtesy of the Glen Cove Public Library Robert R. Coles Long Island History Collection
Appleby’s bluffs and beach today as seen from the water Photo by Dave Nieri
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Back Road Hill – What is today called Glen Cove Avenue in Glen Cove was,
in 1873, known as South Street. It came down the hill from neighboring Sea Cliff Village to the Lower Glen Lake (where the Glen Cove Fire Department and Glen Cove Public Library sit today). The road then turned sharply to the right to follow the shoreline of the Lower Lake to Bridge Street, opposite Continental Place. Bridge Street was a footbridge across the Lower Lake (later widened to accommodate vehicles), connecting with Glen Street on the other side of the lake.
From the earliest times the principal roads to and from Musquito (Glen) Cove were Cedar Swamp Road, primarily a north-south route, and Town Path which connected Musquito Cove to Oyster Bay (most of Town Path was later renamed Duck Pond Road). The South Street hill climbing into Sea Cliff acquired the local appellation of “Back Road Hill”, probably because it was the “back way” into that part of Musquito Cove that was across the lake from the
village itself. From South Street, one had to cross the bridge (later Bridge Street) over the Lower Glen Lake to get to the commercial district.
When the Duryea Starch Works was a major industrial employer in Glen Cove from the 1850s until 1903, worker tenement housing was created in two areas: “Wooden Row” on the South Street hill, along with taverns and boarding houses, and “Brick Row” located northwest of the Lower Glen Lake (probably where Herb Hill Road is today. Besides being the “back way” into Glen Cove from the adjacent Sea Cliff community, the hill was home to the poorer factory workers, who lived just up the hill from their workplace.
Many of the older residences on the hill were demolished and replaced with a federally-funded housing project in 1957, which is today run by the Glen Cove Housing Authority.
Detail from the 1873 Beers Map of Glen Cove
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The Breakwater, or the Glen Cove Jetty – The regular steamboat service
between New York City and Glen Cove saw significant growth in the mid-1800s, and by the 1870s plans were being considered for a breakwater to provide a secure anchorage in Hempstead Harbor and safe berths alongside the steamboat wharf. Undoubtedly the well-connected steamboat owners petitioned Congress in the 1880s for Federal help in constructing such a breakwater at Glen Cove’s Landing. By 1888, local lobbying was successful in obtaining Federal funds, and authorization for the project was included in the River and Harbor Act of August 11, 1888. The project authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a 2,000-foot stone breakwater extending southwesterly from the vicinity of the Glen Cove steamboat dock into Hempstead Harbor. The stone was obtained from the New York City subway tunnel excavations and other Manhattan projects, and transported to Glen Cove.
Work on the jetty commenced around 1890, and continued on and off for the next 16 years as Federal funds became available, but by 1906, only 1,564 feet of the original 2,000 feet of breakwater had been completed, at a total cost of $72,000. The project was declared complete at its current length.
Over the next seventy years, the stone gradually settled into harbor bottom, and by 1960 the breakwater was barely exposed above the high tide. The Corps of Engineers added more stone in 1966 to raise the height of the jetty so that it would continue to provide protection from waves, and the excess stone was placed at the western end, extending the length by another 20 feet. The seaward end of the breakwater has been lit by a navigational light mounted on a tower since
its early days – first a white light, and later changed to a green flashing light, which is affixed today, denoting this navigation aid as Beacon “5” on nautical charts.
Today, the breakwater still protects the anchorage for recreational boats moored in the harbor to the south of it, and in addition, serves as a fishing pier for dozens of local fisherman.
The Glen Cove Breakwater today, with Morgan Park Pavilions at far left Photo by Dave Nieri
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Cedar Swamp – Early Glen Cove history mentions an Indian trail that follows
the “Cedar Swamp Valley” through what is today Old Brookville and Glen Head, into Glen Cove. The origin of the name for this Cedar Swamp Valley, and by extension, Cedar Swamp Road, is difficult to locate, because no swamp exists in the valley in the present day. The Indian trail may have become Cedar Swamp Road, which today forms a section of State Route 107 from Jericho Turnpike (Route 25) northward through Brookville and joins Glen Cove Road in Glen Head. However, at the point where the Arterial Highway begins on Glen Cove Road, just south of Glen Cove’s border, Cedar Swamp Road splits off from Route 107, and passes through Glen Cove’s southern commercial district as the main road into the downtown. The name changes from Cedar Swamp Road to Glen Street after crossing the LIRR tracks at the Glen Street Station.
The Cedar Swamp Historical Society’s “History of Glen Head” states that the area that is called Glen Head and Old Brookville today, was called Cedar Swamp in colonial times. This is confirmed on one of the earlier maps showing property ownership on the North Shore peninsula. Cedar Swamp Road then is the road from Musquito Cove to Cedar Swamp.
Glen Cove’s Mill Pond is fed by a stream, sometimes called Cedar Swamp Creek, that flows from as far inland as Greenvale and connects a series of small ponds east of Glen Cove Road, and flows through this Cedar Swamp Valley. In Glen Head this stream runs alongside Glen Cove Road and the Arterial Highway to flow into the Mill Pond behind the Glen Cove Firehouse, and into Glen Cove Creek, thence into Hempstead Harbor. Note that the Upper and Lower Glen Lakes did not exist until the settlers constructed dams across the creek for their Musquito Cove mills.
A 1907 report written for the Torrey Botanical Society mentions that “white cedar swamps” had been found in many locations of Long Island in the coastal plain in the 1840s, but all of the areas mentioned are on the south shore. The report’s author visited the area on Long Island called Cedar Swamp (today’s Glen Head) to investigate, but “could find no perceptible aggregation of houses, no Chamaecyparis*, nor even a swamp”.
It may be assumed that at some point in the North Shore’s early history when the area was predominantly forest and meadows and cedar swamps were plentiful, one existed here, probably along the route of the creek, and gave rise to the Cedar Swamp Valley label, as well as the name Cedar Swamp for today’s Glen Head.
* Chamaecyparis thyoides, Atlantic white cedar
Map of property ownership displays Colonial era names “Musketo Cove” and “Cedar Swamp” for
Glen Cove and Glen Head
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Cottage Row – Among the oldest
streets in Glen Cove, Cottage Row runs from Chestnut Street to the present-day Brewster Street/School Street intersection. The name likely comes from the many small homes and boarding houses occupied by the factory workers, and a number of small businesses, that populated the north side of the street. The south side of Cottage Row on the western end was part of Judge Elias Beach’s estate, and the estate’s stone wall is still present on Cottage Row. A pair of the entrance pillars of the Beach estate still stand at the flashing light on Hill Street, and now mark the entrance to the Congregation Tifereth Israel temple.
Prospect Avenue, the main parallel road north of Cottage Row, still features a number of 19th century dwellings of wood frame construction that were owned by more affluent residents of the community, but there are only a few of the original houses remaining today on Cottage Row, on the western half of the street. The properties on Prospect Avenue and Cottage Row are separated by a narrow, dead-end lane of several hundred feet in length, entered from Chestnut Street, called Cottage Lane on local maps.
Cottage Row is also home to one of the oldest African-American denominations in the area, tracing its roots to the mid-1800s – the Calvary African Methodist Episcopal Church. The church on the corner of Chestnut Street and Cottage Row was completed in 1910.
Cottage Row in the Winter of 1898, looking toward School Street Courtesy of the Glen Cove Public Library
Robert R. Coles Long Island History Collection
Detail from the 1873 Beers Map of Glen Cove
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Dosoris (see also Woolsey Avenue) – The area known as Dosoris was a 300-
acre tract of land in the northern part of Musquito Cove (“Glen Cove” after 1834) through which Dosoris Lane passes. On early maps, Dosoris is shown as a region north of present-day Woolsey Avenue, though it may have extended as far south as Forest Avenue in the eastern portion. Dosoris was bounded on the north by Long Island Sound and included East and West Islands. On the west, its boundary was Fresh Pond Lane (today known as Crescent Beach Road), and on the east, the boundary of Glen Cove with the Village of Lattingtown.
Most of the land that comprised Dosoris had not been a part of the Musquito Cove Plantations Patent, and in fact was shown as a separate village on maps as late as 1859. In the 17th century, this tract belonged to a Col. Lewis Morris of Barbados, while East Island was owned by Robert Williams. Nicholas Simpkins, one of the Musquito Cove Plantation proprietors, owned West Island. Through additional transfers, all of these parcels were eventually acquired by John Taylor of Oyster Bay, which was a well-established community settled in 1653.
In 1736 Rev. Benjamin Woolsey and his family settled on and farmed the land that was inherited by his wife, Abigail Taylor, from her father John Taylor. According to the writings of Glen Cove historian Dan Russell, Woolsey named the farm “Dosoris” from the Latin “dox” (meaning “wife”) and “uxoris” (“dowry”).
Following Rev. Benjamin Woolsey’s death in 1756, Dosoris was divided between his sons Melancthon (receiving three-fifths) and his brother Benjamin (two-fifths). In 1760 Nathaniel Coles bought all of Dosoris from both sons. Thereafter the property was bequeathed to John Butler Coles and General Nathaniel Coles. The Woolsey family cemetery is located at the intersection of Dosoris Lane and Lattingtown Road.
Although Dosoris Lane appears on the map of the “1677 Cove Patent”, the name Dosoris was coined by Woolsey in the 1700s when he retired to the Musquito Cove farm. It is likely that it was added to the 1677 Patent map when it was drawn by Isaac Coles in 1882, or when copied by Daniel Carpenter in 1892, as noted at the bottom of the map.
Dosoris, minus East and West Islands, was called Dosoris Park in the 1800s, and was purchased by Charles Pratt, a board member of Standard Oil. Dosoris Park would encompass all of the Pratt family estates that were established between 1890 and 1915.
Besides the area, and the road (Dosoris Lane) that connects Glen Cove’s commercial district to its north shore, the name has been preserved in Dosoris Pond, which separates East and West Islands from the mainland, and Dosoris Way, a street that parallels Forest Avenue. Additionally, West Island is often shown on maps as Dosoris Island.
Woolsey Homestead at “Dosoris”
Courtesy of the Glen Cove Public Library Robert R. Coles Long Island History Collection
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Garvies Point (see also Appleby’s) – Though not actually a point of land
today, the name broadly refers to the beach area at the end of Garvies Point Road at Hempstead Harbor, and is named for the Garvie family that owned the property through the 1800s. On the 1873 Beers map of Glen Cove, what is today known as Garvies Point Road is shown as Bay Street, ending at the harbor. Some earlier maps show that a point of land existed at the terminus of Bay Street that was called Garvie”s Point after the Garvie family acquired the land (now, Garvies Point – usage over the last two centuries has seen the apostrophe disappear). When the property was previously owned by Jesse Coles, a descendent of one of the original patent founders, it was called Sheeps-Pen Point. This point of land on the shore has since virtually disappeared, probably through beach erosion, and the Hempstead Harbour Club is located there. The beach at Garvies Point was christened Mercadante Beach to honor
former Glen Cove Mayor Luke A. Mercadante (term 1948-1951).
The Garvie family was established in Musquito Cove by James Garvie, a British officer during the American Revolution who subsequently bought land on Long Island. He and his son Dr. Thomas Garvie, emigrated together from Scotland in 1803 to Musquito Cove. Garvie owned the land on the north side of the Creek through which Bay Street (now Garvies Point Road) passes.
Dr. Garvie was one of only two physicians in the village in the early 1800s. He built the first dock at Hempstead Harbor from his property, and negotiated with Cornelius Vanderbilt to begin a steamboat service between New York City and Musquito Cove (later Glen Cove). The first steamer, the LINNAEUS, berthed at Musquito Cove’s Garvie dock in 1829, however that same year William Weeks established a competing steamboat dock one-half mile to the north and the steamer service to the Weeks dock (which became known as the Landing) quickly became the regular service. Dr. Garvie also began an operation that mined clay from deposits along the shoreline northward of Garvies Point for shipment to New York City. Clay deposits are still visible today in the bluffs adjacent to the beach on the Garvies Point Preserve.
Garvie Avenue bordered the Garvie property on the north side in The Landing and terminated at the western-most street (West Street), one block beyond today’s Germain Street, where Morgan Park’s entrance is located. The Garvie properties were acquired by the Appleby family in the latter half of the 1800s. In 1931 when Morgan Park was being developed on the beachfront tract north of Garvie Avenue, West Street and its homes disappeared, the properties having been absorbed into the Park, which was completed and dedicated in 1932. At that time, Garvie Avenue was extended to Hempstead Harbor and renamed McLoughlin Street.
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The Landing – The oldest residential neighborhood in Glen Cove grew
between the mills that were situated near the Creek and the steamboat dock that came along much later. The original Musquito Cove Plantation settlement was centered about The Place, a street where the original settlers built their first homes, situated above the mill . Today, The Place marks the southernmost residential neighborhood in what is considered The Landing, although the name applied to the neighborhood could only have originated more than 160 years after the founding of Glen Cove.
The steamboat “landing” was a dock established by William Weeks in 1829 for passenger steamer service, and located in the vicinity of where the breakwater meets Morgan Park beach, long before the breakwater was constructed. With the first recorded steamboat voyage to Musquito Cove in 1829, the Long Island Sound steamers soon began regular service transporting visitors here from New York City, as well as to another dock at Sea Cliff, and to other points along Long Island’s North Shore. The Pavilion Hotel adjacent to the landing, in what is now Morgan Memorial Park, served these visitors, as did numerous other hotels that sprang up in The Landing and elsewhere in the village. This steamer service to what developed into a resort village for wealthy New York City residents was important enough to the community that by the
mid-1800s, the road connecting the steamboat landing with Glen Cove’s commercial district was named Main Street (today it is called Landing Road). In fact, it was the popularity of the steamer service that led to changing the community’s name from Musquito Cove to Glen Cove in 1834, a smart marketing move as would-be travelers
The Pavilion Hotel on the hill above the Steamboat Landing (at left)
The Steamboat Wharf at Glen Cove
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thought that the advertised destination of the Long Island-bound steamboat was a haven for a pesky insect.
The steamer service to Glen Cove continued into the early 20th century, but fire destroyed the Pavilion Hotel in 1880, and a series of disasters befell some of the elegant passenger boats between 1880 and the end of the century. A trolley line was established in 1905 to transport people from The Landing to Glen Cove’s downtown and railroad stations. The Glen Cove Railroad Line electrified trolley service operated from the steamer dock, up Main Street (Landing Road), with a trolley stop at John Street, turning down Carpenter Street, and eventually winding its way to School Street, thence along Glen Street to the LIRR’s Glen Street Station, and onward to the Sea Cliff Railroad Station. But the steamer service eventually dwindled and the trolley line was discontinued in 1924.
In the same manner as Italian immigrants made their homes in The Orchard neighborhood, Polish immigrants who arrived in Glen Cove to work in the factories and on the Gold Coast estates settled in The Landing, which was predominantly Polish through the first half of the 20th century.
Today, the residential area known as The Landing extends from the Hempstead Harbor beachfront at and to the south of Morgan Park, eastward to Hill Street, and lies between Landing Road (originally called Main Street) and McLoughlin Street (formerly, Garvie Avenue). It includes the 1950s-era residential development west of the Landing School known as Morgan Park Estates. The Place, Mill Hill, upper Dickson Street, and Janet Lane are all considered a part of The Landing. However, the land south of The Place and Janet Lane down to the banks of the Glen Cove Creek has been an industrial area through most of the 20th century, and is therefore usually not thought of when residents speak of The Landing neighborhood.
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Matinecock – This North Shore peninsula between Hempstead Harbor and
Oyster Bay was known as Matinecock, translated as “at the hilly land” in the Algonkian language. The Native Americans of the Matinecock Chieftancy inhabited the North Shore of Long Island east of Newtown in what is today Queens, as far as the western line of Smithtown. They were a large and important tribe with settlements on the North Shore at Flushing, Bayside, Musquito Cove, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, Northport, and Matinecock. Financier J.P. Morgan, Jr. named his East Island estate “Matinecock Point”.
The name Matinecock survives today in Matinecock Point, a major geographic feature on Glen Cove’s East Island jutting into Long Island Sound, and the 2.7 sq. mile Incorporated Village of Matinecock, which borders Glen Cove, Locust Valley, Mill Neck and Upper Brookville. The Matinecock Rod & Gun Club, located on the banks of Dosoris Pond, also keeps the name in use.
The J.P. Morgan, Jr. estate “Matinecock Point” on East Island. The point of land jutting into Long
Island Sound in the upper left is the geographic feature called Matinecock Point on nautical charts.
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Morgan Island – East Island on the north shore of Glen Cove is often called
Morgan Island. It is one of two islands separated from the mainland by creeks and Dosoris Pond, the other being West Island (on some maps shown as Dosoris Island). East Island was purchased by Robert Williams in 1667, a year before the Musquito Cove Plantations contract. Both islands were a part of Benjamin Woolsey’s Dosoris tract.
Wall Street banker John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. established a family summer home on a farm that he rented on East Island in 1910 with panoramic views of Long Island Sound. Finding East Island to be suitably close to Wall Street, Morgan purchased the island as an estate which he named “Matinecock Point”, and had a palatial mansion built in the center of the island in 1913. His son, Junius Morgan later purchased West Island and built his estate “Salutations” there in 1928. The two islands are connected by a stonework bridge.
In the 1950s the Morgan Island Estates residential development was built on East (Morgan) Island and surrounded the Morgan Mansion, which at that time was occupied by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart Novitiate until 1980. A narrow strip of property and beachfront on the far eastern end of the island may not have been part of the original estate, and in any event was later acquired by the City of Glen Cove for a public beach, which was known in the 1950s as “East Beach”. It is now named Pryibil Beach and is reached by a road that lies in the Village of Lattingtown, just beyond the boundary between the Village and the City of Glen Cove.
The “Matinecock Point” mansion was torn down in 1980. However, some vestiges of the J.P. Morgan estate still exist on the island, notably the dairy, dairyman’s cottage, garages, and chauffer’s residence, and the Shell House, a guest cottage and later home to the Captain of Morgan’s 340’ yacht CORSAIR. These outbuildings are now private homes. The most picturesque remnant of “Matinecock Point” is the stone bridge connecting East Island and West Island, and the only public road accessing East (Morgan) Island.
The Mansion on East (Morgan) Island
Aerial View of the “Matinecock Point” Estate
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Musquito Cove, also written as: Musketa Cove, Muscheda Cove,
Moscheto Cove, Muskeeto Cove, Musketo Cove, Mosquito Cove, Masketicove
Musquito Cove derived its name from the original settlement documents where it appears as the “Musquito Cove Plantations”. On May 24, 1668, Joseph Carpenter (formerly of Rhode Island but then residing at Oyster Bay) purchased the land surrounding Musquito Cove from the Matinecock Indian inhabitants. “Musquito” roughly translates in the Algonkian Indian language spoken by the Matinecocks as “place of rushes” or “meadows”, undoubtedly referring to the large meadows which existed north of the modern-day Glen Cove Creek.
Although written many different ways in the early years of the settlement, with the first Post Office established in 1818, the official name of the village became “Musquito Cove”. However, association with the mosquito insect forced the proprietors to change the name once again to “Moscheto Cove”. The establishment of regular steamboat service between the village and New York City led to a final break with any name that remotely hinted that the community was infested with mosquitoes, and in 1834, the village became “Glen Cove”.
Legend has it that someone at the village meeting called in 1834 to consider a name change, proposed “Glencoe” (for a place in Scotland) but the name was mis-heard as “Glen Cove”, and that name was agreed to. However, in a historical manuscript written by a descendant of the founding Coles family, Edward Coles (who resided in Rev. Benjamin Woolsey’s original mansion in the Dosoris area), claims that it was he who suggested the name “Glen Cove”. After other names such as “Pembroke”, “Queenville”, “Regina”, and “Circassia” were rejected, the vote was nearly unanimous for “Glen Cove”.
Glen Cove City Hall mural featuring a Musquito Cove settler and a Native American at the Hempstead Harbor shore – painted by resident Marilyn Turtz
Photo by Tab Hauser
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The Orchard – The wedge-shaped neighborhood that is bounded by Cedar
Swamp Road, Sea Cliff Avenue, The Arterial Highway (Route 107), and the LIRR tracks, contains just six streets, and was built in an apple orchard. At the turn of the 20th century, this area at the southern boundary of Glen Cove was still farmland and the farm and apple orchard belonged to a Mr. Carney, hence Carney Street is the first street into The Orchard off Cedar Swamp Road, entering Glen Cove from the south. Many immigrants had worked on building the Long Island Railroad as it expanded eastward into Long Island (reaching Glen Cove in 1868, its Bi-Centennial year). Railroad laborers were boarded in barracks built on the nearby Murphy farm. In the late 19th century a wave of Italian immigrants, mostly young men, began to arrive in America and quickly filled the numerous laborer jobs available as New York City expanded into the suburbs. This was facilitated by the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge (opened in 1883) that linked Manhattan to Long Island. Many were lured to Glen Cove in the late 1800s to install Glen Cove’s water system or to work on St. Patrick’s Church, which was completed in 1900. Carney sold off land in his orchard and homes for the new immigrants were constructed on the land. Because there were so many young, single Italian men in this immigration influx, most of the initial homes were built as boarding houses. With little knowledge of English and recognizing that the local culture was vastly different from their southern Italian homeland, The Orchard grew to be an Italian enclave in the heart of the North Shore, and the area began to resemble the small villages around Naples, Italy from which most of the immigrants came, with bocce courts and backyard vegetable gardens. Sturno, Italy is one such village from which a large percentage of the Italian-American population can trace their roots, and today it has the distinction of being Glen Cove’s “Sister City”.
The residents found abundant work as stonemasons and landscapers in the construction and maintenance of the Gold Coast estates, and the apple orchard gradually disappeared as more homes were built. As the Italian immigrants settled in the community, they eventually started families or implored their family members to leave the Avellino province of Italy and reestablish themselves here in The Orchard. The Orchard developed into an Italian community with its own retail shops, grocery stores, and taverns.
The immigrant community, being Catholic, worshipped at the Irish St. Patrick’s Church in Glen Cove, until they formed an Italian Church of St. Rocco in 1920. As the immigrants prospered, many built larger homes on the hill across Cedar Swamp Road, which some refer to as the “Upper Orchard” (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Streets, ending at Wolfle Street). A permanent Church of St. Rocco was built in the “Upper Orchard” in 1937 on 3rd Street, designed by a young architect, Michael Pascucci from The Orchard, and constructed through donated funds, materials, and labor by the residents themselves. By 1910, Glen Cove’s population was recorded as being about 10,000, and Italian-Americans made up more than 20%, 600 to 800 of whom resided in The Orchard.
The street names in The Orchard have significance: Hazel, Willow and Grove Streets for the trees which grew in the area at its birth; Carney Street for the original landowner of the apple orchard; Stanco and Capobianco Streets were named for two residents of The Orchard who were killed in combat in World War I (Pvt. Aniello Stanco, 38th Infrantry and Pvt. Luigi Capobianco,107th Infantry) . These two surnames are well-known in Glen Cove for the large number of families that bear them, who can trace their
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roots in the city to The Orchard. Today, The Orchard is changing as over time, the Italian-American immigrant families outgrew the confines of the six block neighborhood and moved to other areas of the city, but The Orchard welcomes new immigrants of other nationalities, and new construction in the form of apartment buildings is underway, to replace the modest homes built at the turn of the 20th century.
Red Spring – The area due west of the tract known as Dosoris, and located in
the northwest corner of Glen Cove is referred to as Red Spring. The historical source for this name comes from a deposit of red sand on the property that gave the spring water rising through the deposit a reddish hue. John Weeks acquired this tract and built his home to the west of Red Spring Lane in 1753. This was the main house of a thriving farm that extended from the shores of Hempstead Harbor on the west and Long Island Sound on the north, eastward to Fresh Pond Lane (today’s Crescent Beach Road) and to Woolsey Avenue on the south. Red Spring Lane connects this northwest area of Glen Cove (Red Spring) to Landing Road.
Descendant William Weeks was instrumental in the construction of the steamboat dock in 1829 that gave The Landing area its name, and also built the nearby Pavilion Hotel. Another of the Weeks’ descendants, Edward Frost Weeks, sold much of the land to John Rogers Maxwell (1846-1910). The Weeks home was demolished and in 1898 the Gold Coast estate “Maxwelton” was built facing Hempstead Harbor, just south of Red Spring Point (today called Weeks Point). A part of the original mansion is said to survive today at the end of Old Estate Road, off Red Spring Lane. The Weeks properties on the west of Red Spring Lane (and facing Hempstead Harbor) as far south as Woolsey Avenue, became Gold Coast estates, while the remainder of Red Spring, east of Red Spring Lane to Crescent Beach Road, and northward to the shore, became the “mini-estates” of the Red Spring Colony and North Country Colony, most of which still exist today.
John Rogers Maxwell’s home at “Maxwelton”
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Weeks Point (see also Red Spring) – This geographic feature on the
northwest coastline of Glen Cove is the point that delineates Hempstead Harbor from Long Island Sound. It is characterized by a jetty, and a navigational buoy, green can #1, several hundred yards offshore. The 19th century maps of Glen Cove show this as Red Spring Point, and it was known as such during that era where it is mentioned in early descriptions of the Red Spring area. However today’s nautical charts and land maps show this geographic feature as Weeks Point, so-named for the Weeks family who owned the large farming tract that comprises the northwest corner of Glen Cove from as early as 1753.
William Mudge Weeks (1803-1883) had a major influence on Glen Cove’s development in the 19th century. Having built the steamboat wharf which gave The Landing area its name, he also built the Pavilion Hotel where Morgan Park stands today. Both of these initiatives resulted in the steamboat traffic that made the village a resort for the New York City wealthy, and subsequently led to the community’s name change to Glen Cove. William Weeks was a founding member of the Glen Cove Mutual Insurance Company, and instrumental in the creation of the Glen Cove Fire Department in 1837, serving as its first Chief.
Today there remains a geographic coastal feature named Red Spring Point, but it lies about 500 yards SSW of Weeks Point, between the two present-day waterfront residential developments at Whitney Circle and The Legends.
Woolsey Avenue (see also Dosoris) – Woolsey Avenue, one of the longest
residential streets in Glen Cove (0.9 mile in length), extends from Red Spring Lane on the west to Dosoris Lane on the east, and connects the Red Spring District to the Dosoris District of the city. It is named for the Woolsey family, which is known on both sides of Long Island Sound. Though the Woolsey’s are more well-known and prolific in Connecticut, the family was firmly established in Musquito Cove by the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey in 1736. Benjamin Woolsey was born at Jamaica in 1687 and graduated from Yale in 1709 at the age of 22. Rev. Woolsey then served as a pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Southold, eastern Long Island, where he lived with his young family for sixteen years prior to his retirement to a farm of 300 acres inherited by his wife Abigail Taylor Woolsey (from her father, John Taylor of Oyster Bay). This large tract of land in the northern part of Musquito Cove Woolsey named “Dosoris” (“wife’s dowry” in Latin). The Woolsey homestead faced Long Island Sound, and across it, Connecticut. The Woolsey House was built in 1745 and torn down in 1940. Rev. Woolsey died in 1756; his wife Abigail in 1771 at Stamford, Connecticut, just across the Sound.
The two eldest of Rev. Woolsey’s six children, Melancthon and Sarah, married into the Lloyd family of Lloyd’s Neck. Lt. Col. Melancthon Woolsey commanded Long Island militia troops at the attack on Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian Wars. He died of “camp fever” (typhus) in 1758, and is buried in the Woolsey family cemetery at the end of Dosoris Lane, as is his father, Rev. Benjamin Woolsey.
William Mudge Weeks
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Glen Cove Parks
Big Ralph Park – Memorializes Sgt. “Big Ralph” Mastaglio, a veteran of both
World War I and World War II. Having already served in the Army in WWI, “Big Ralph” tried to enlist again for WWII, but was rejected as being over the enlistment age. It is reported that he dyed his graying hair to its original red color, altered his birth certificate, and journeyed to another town to re-enlist. Sgt. Mastaglio, a recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, served with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma during WWII. Big Ralph Park is on Kelly Street, behind the former Coles School.
Danis Park – A small triangle park located adjacent to the Town Path connector
from Glen Street to the Arterial (Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly Memorial) Highway. It’s most notable feature is the circle of thirteen flagpoles flying American flags. Since 2001, each year the Glen Cove Rotary has provided new flags for the Danis Park flagpoles prior to the Memorial Day Weekend. Danis Park is named for Robert H. Danis, who served as Glen Cove’s Commissioner of Public Works from 1952 to 1957. In addition to the many improvements he instituted in the Public Works Department, Danis oversaw the design and construction of the City’s $700,000 sewage treatment facility located on the south side of Glen Cove Creek. Danis passed away at the age of 44 in 1959.
Dennis Brian Murray Park – The former Leech Circle Park, perched
on a wooded hillside overlooking Glen Cove’s downtown, features two all-purpose playing fields, a playground, a paved parking area, and since 2016, a dog park. It is located on Leech Circle South. In 2003 the park was substantially renovated and renamed to honor Sp4 Dennis Brian Murray, U.S. Army, who was killed in combat in Quang Nam province, Vietnam in June 1969. Dennis Murray played in this park as a youngster growing up in Glen Cove, graduated from Glen Cove High School in 1965, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving with the 17th Cavalry.
Harriet Barnes Pratt Park or Pratt Park – In 1937 Harriet
Barnes Pratt donated the land around the Mill Pond, where the first mill was constructed by Musquito Cove settlers 350 years ago, to the City of Glen Cove as parkland. The Mill Pond is the only major body of water in the downtown that is left from what once were Upper and Lower Glen Lakes. It is fed by Cedar Swamp Creek, which drains from Greenvale through Glen Head, and parallels the arterial highway into Glen Cove, the last third of a mile or so flowing beneath roadways to empty into the Mill Pond. The Mill Pond in turn flows over a dam into Glen Cove Creek. Glen Cove was in dire need of a new, larger firehouse after the closure of West Glen Street under the downtown urban renewal project, and in 1965 the current firehouse was built in a portion of Pratt Park on landfill which partially encroached on the pond, with the approval however, of Mrs. Pratt. The park today still encompasses the Mill Pond, and it wraps around the Fire Department and EMS Headquarters building, and extends to the new Charles Street Bridge, and is bounded by the eastbound lanes of Charles Street on the south, with the westbound lanes passing through the park.
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Morgan Memorial Park – Following the 1925 death of his wife, Jane
Norton Morgan, J.P. Morgan, Jr. wanted to create a public park to memorialize his late wife. In 1927 Morgan purchased the land where the old Pavilion Hotel, and later “The Hall” (home of Duryea Starch Works owner, Wright Duryea) had stood near the steamboat landing. He acquired a number of other homes in the western part of The Landing, and the western most road (West Street), to assemble the acreage that he needed to construct his park. Manor houses and cottages alike were demolished and the grounds landscaped to create a beautiful harborside park on the land in her
memory. Morgan Memorial Park was dedicated in 1932 as a public park and beach, and Morgan gave it to the City of Glen Cove via an unheard of 999-year lease. It is believed to be Glen Cove’s first park, and as a public amenity is only predated by the Harbor Beach Pavilion, which was constructed on the beach near the mouth of Glen Cove Creek (1902-1922) to provide the residents with a bathing beach and changing rooms.
Morgan Park is to be enjoyed by the residents of Glen Cove and Locust Valley (Jane Morgan was from the Locust Valley Pennoyer family). The scenic park is a special place in Glen Cove, used for many community events and
shows, picnicking, swimming, fireworks displays, and wedding pictures. The original bandstand (often called the “Gazebo”) has been a symbol of Glen Cove for many years and currently appears in the City’s seal. The park has hosted free Sunday evening concerts of the Morgan Park Summer Music Festival, beginning in 1959.
Joe Stanco Park – Located at the Glen Cove Municipal Golf Course, Joe
Stanco Park is named for former Mayor of Glen Cove, Joseph A. Stanco (Mayor, 1952-1955). Prior to the construction of the Glen Cove Golf Course, in 1967 Mayor Joseph Muldoon dedicated the Geddes Recreation Area park and playground located on Lattingtown Road, on the former Geddes estate. This park featured tennis, basketball and handball courts, horseshoe pits and a picnic area. A future phase of the Recreation Area was to include a 9-hole golf course. A temporary stage was constructed in the park for the Tri-Centennial Pageant production put on the following year, 1968. However, the plans later changed to create a full 18-hole municipal golf course on the combined Geddes and Pryibil estates, which opened for play in 1970. The existing Geddes Recreation Area facilities comprising the tennis, basketball, handball courts, horseshoe pits, and playground next to the golf course were renamed Joe Stanco Park.
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John Maccarone Memorial Stadium
Formerly called City Stadium, this multi-purpose sports facility was dedicated to John Maccarone, long-serving Director of Glen Cove’s Parks and Recreation Department, in 1992. Located on Morris Avenue, the stadium originally began with just a few ballfields in 1947. It served the City’s midget and little league baseball programs, and later added youth football and soccer leagues, as well as hosting adult teams. John Maccarone Memorial Stadium has eight baseball fields, sized for different age groups, and can be configured for both soccer and football games. The facility has expanded several times since 1947, most recently in 1997. Beginning in 2017, the stadium will begin to host regional tournament baseball games.
Public Beaches
Crescent Beach – A small, secluded public beach at the end of Crescent
Beach Road since the 1950s. This beach is leased from the North County Colony at 10-year intervals. The beach was closed to bathing in 2009 to address pollution concerns from a nearby freshwater creek, but it is hoped that it will reopen in the future.
Morgan Beach – The beachfront in Morgan Memorial Park.
Pryibil Beach – East Beach opened as a Glen Cove public beach in 1959,
under Mayor Joseph Suozzi. It is located on the north side of Dosoris Pond, accessible by East Beach Road. It was subsequently renamed Pryibil Beach for the Pryibil family, from whom the City received parcels for both the beach and Municipal Golf Course.
